While the big, ground-dwelling bird known as the greater sage-grouse relies upon the West’s sagebrush steppe for its living, its survival may rest on a delicately negotiated set of agreements — agreements that the Trump administration, as with so many things, is set to upend.
But the situation may be different in Colorado — at least for the moment.
The administration’s push is pitting oil and gas development on America’s “sagebrush sea” against the protection of one the habitat’s prime residents, the sage-grouse — a bird whose western population has dropped to as few as 200,000 from a historical high estimated at 16 million.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the sage-grouse’s western habitat is “one of the most imperiled ecosystems in North America due to continued degradation and lack of protection.”
In 2015, under the Obama administration, plans to protect sage-grouse habitat and restrict development were negotiated state by state. The goal was to craft local plans and projects to prevent the sage grouse from being listed as an endangered species leading to federal intervention.
Read more at Colorado Politics: https://bit.ly/2OeDRwg
